Stories of America’s Culture and History

VOA Learning English is an initiative of Voice of America to help English learners all over the world to improve their English. The program includes informational and news stories, as well as lessons, written with simple vocabulary and spoken at a slow speed to help learners to understand them easily. Students can read, listen, and watch the lessons anywhere with their iOS or Android mobile devices. Even if they are already proficient at English, they can learn more about American culture and history, as well as the latest news in the world. The contents are updated daily. The app provides access to more than 8,000 stories with audio and transcripts in 18 programs on such topics as America’s National Parks, American Mosaic, American Stories, Everyday Grammar, Science in the News, Personal Technology, People in America, The Making of a Nation, and Words and Their Stories. The app also provides access to more than 2,500 videos in 11 programs—for example: Education Report, Technology Report, News Words, English in a Minute, English @ the Movies, and Everyday Grammar. In addition, users can customize the background, text color, and text size; change the audio and video playing speed, and auto-repeat. They can also look up words when reading stories, and save and sync favorite stories between different devices. Cost: Free

To raise awareness about sexual assault and harassment, a new organization called Stop Sexual Assault in Schools has launched #MeTooK12. The goal is to bring attention to the problem in the school environment in the same way the “Me Too” movement has exposed sexual misconduct in the professional and political realms.

At 10 years old, Marley Dias loved to read but hardly ever came across protagonists who looked like her, so she decided to do something about it. In November 2015, Dias launched the #1000BlackGirlBooks campaign to raise awareness about the lack of black girl characters and inspire young people to take action.